Balance (translation)
by Mai Kusakabe
Summary: Eustass Kid needed a specific ritual so that his life's precarious balance didn't fall apart. If something failed, he would lose the most important thing in his life: Trafalgar Law. Kid x Law


**Disclaimer:** I'm not Oda, so One Piece is not mine, and I don't make any money with this.

I wrote this story on a bad day (a really bad day). I wanted to experiment with a darker side of these characters, and this came up.

Beta-readed by **Dearshul** (Thank you, dear ^-^)

**Warning:** This story may be disturbing for some people, even sick at some points. If it becomes too much, stop reading, because it doesn't get better.

* * *

**Balance**

"_Luckily, the bullet went straight out, so, besides the scar, you won't suffer further sequels beyond some pain and strain in the next months." The doctor finished explaining in a monotonous and professional voice._

_Eustass Kid didn't say anything, he simply kept looking at the man who had appeared in front of him minutes ago, introducing himself as Kid's doctor right after the redhead woke up to find himself in a boring hospital room._

_Trafalgar Law was, at the very least, a curious individual. He appeared to be around twenty five years old and was a tall man, though not as much as Kid himself. He was thin, his skin tanned, and had dark bags under his eyes that gave him a somewhat sickly appearance. His sideburns and goatee, the two earrings he had in each ear and his hand tattoos, along with those that showed under the rolled up sleeves of his white doctor coat made him look like someone you would expect to see injecting himself in an alley far more than working in a hospital, and at the top of that, as a doctor __no less__. But it wasn't just his physical appearance what caught Kid's eye: there was something shining in his gray eyes, behind the seriousness and slight disinterest they showed, something that sent chills down Kid's body the moment their eyes met for the first time._

_It wasn't common for something or someone to catch Kid's interest, but once the redhead felt said interest he did everything in his power to satiate it._

_Right now, Trafalgar Law was the greatest mystery that had crossed Eustass Kid's path in a long time._

* * *

Kid drank the last of his beer in a long swig and threw the bottle into the sink, the glass shattering on impact. He turned on the water and it started to slowly fill the sink, falling faster than the drain could take it.

When the redhead turned off the water it had already completely covered the shards, and was drained in a matter of seconds, taking with it Kid's saliva or anything else there could have been, along with the smaller glass fragments.

He walked away from the countertop he'd been leaning against and started to walk to the door, his steps heavy against the cold concrete floor, their echo bouncing off the walls of the massive space that was long ago a factory.

Now the building was mostly abandoned, the remnants of the machinery piled in the corners or put away in the various rooms that had been transformed into improvised storerooms. The only reason the place wasn't completely covered in dust was that it was too annoying to work with the minuscule particles floating in the air and making him cough and sneeze constantly, so every time Kid needed the place he came a couple of hours before to clean up a bit.

* * *

"_Can I help you?" The doctor asked upon seeing Kid sitting down in one of the small waiting room's chairs destined to the patients that went to see this specific doctor. The visiting hours were over, as stated by the sing in the hallway shoeing the consult schedule, but despite that fact Kid was still there, sitting on one of the room's padded chairs._

"_Perhaps." The redhead answered, not moving at all. "Do you have plans?"_

_Trafalgar Law asked one eyebrow, put off by that question._

"_I doubt that's of your concern, Mr. Eustass."_

_A big grin, too big to belong to a normal person, appeared on Kid's face._

"_So you remember my name."_

_It had been over a week since Kid had left the hospital, and he hadn't been sure the doctor would remember him._

"_I don't usually treat patients who have been shot."_

"_I guess not." Kid said, not losing his grin._

"_You have still to tell me what are you doing here so late, Mr. Eustass."_

"_I have told you. I asked if you had plans." Kid said, starting to feel annoyed that he had to repeat himself._

"_Why do you want to know? Are you asking me out?"_

_Kid leapt to his feet and approached Law, stopping inches away from his face._

"_And if I am?" Kid practically growled with his teeth gritted, and then cursed himself. He was sure he'd lost any chance with his small explosion. That certainly wasn't the best way to approach your intended date._

_Contrary to Kid's expectations, a thin and slightly twisted smirk formed on Trafalgar Law's lips._

"_The truth is I have nothing to do tonight."_

_Kid immediately recovered his grin, even bigger than before, and straightened._

"_Great. You like Chinese?"_

* * *

Kid shoved the door, which he hadn't bothered to close before, to the room that in the past had been the worker's break room, and switched on the lights before letting it back to his previous position, only open by a crack.

Kid's reddish eyes fixed on the room's current occupant, now illuminated by the pathetic light given by three old light bulbs in that windowless room situated at the centre of the factory. When Kid brought him, the man had tried to keep calm for some minutes, until the desperation had won the battle against his pathetic attempt at keeping his mind cool and the man had started to fight him back with everything he had.

Now, almost two hours later, the man had barely enough strength to pant heavily, let go weak and lamentable whimpers and open his eyes slightly when he heard Kid approaching. The fear in those eyes grew for an instant, shining over all other emotions gathered in them.

Kid grinned, feeling satisfied with himself and in a very good mood. All the man's energy, given by whatever shit he consumed, had now been completely drained along with the blood that his body was losing slowly but steadily.

He should be missing two liters by now.

"Well," Kid said, his voice cheerful and pleasant, "it's been a pleasure meeting you, I assure you, but I think it's time to say goodbye."

Kid burst out laughing when more of that pathetic whimpering came out of the man's mouth, accompanied by thin streaks of tears, in response to his words. And here he thought the man had lost the strength to cry after the first hour.

* * *

"_Tell me, Mr. Eustass," Law spoke, leaving the rice curry back on the table after serving himself, "why were you shot?"_

_Kid looked at him and swallowed the bite of spring roll he had in his mouth before answering._

"_I fucked a girl."_

_Law lifted an eyebrow, looking amused and skeptical._

"_I find it hard to believe that would be a reason to shoot someone, no matter how… deficient his performance could have been."_

_Kid glared at him._

"_My _performance_ had nothing to do with it. In fact that girl's screams were heard even at the street."_

"_Then?" Law insisted, so amused Kid didn't know if he wanted to punch him or ensure that emotion stayed longer. Amusement was an expression that looked good in Law's attractive face._

"_There might have been a bet with some friends, and there might have been a camera in the room. It's also possible that the video found its way into internet and the bastard boyfriend of that girl didn't like it."_

"_So he shot you." Finished Law, obviously still amused even though propriety dictated he should be horrified or, at the very least, condemning in regards to such __a__ story. "Aren't you worried that the guy will try it again?" The man asked, having just thought of it._

_Kid shrugged._

"_Nah, he was an unlucky bastard. I've heard he was beaten by a gang a couple of days ago and died before the ambulance got there."_

_Law looked at him for a moment before going back to his dinner._

"_That's a bad luck, yes." The man commented._

_They ate in silence for some more minutes, but it was not a silence that bothered Kid, it had a calm and pleasant air to it that made him feel comfortable._

_Some minutes later, Law decided to ask something that must have been in his head for some time now:_

"_May I know why do you have this interest for me? I know I'm hot, no need to deny that, but it's not commonplace for a patient to ask me out."_

_Kid burst out laughing at that comment._

"_Cocky, aren't we?" Law gave him a pleased smile. "I'm not really sure, to be honest." Kid answered the question. "You caught my attention the other day, I guess that's normal: you don't get to see many doctors with tattoos and piercings."_

"_I've been mistaken for an addict or a patient more than once." Law said, confirming Kid's first impression of the man. That fact, though, didn't seem to bother Law; the man seemed to find it amusing instead. Law smiled again and gestured at the table. "Though that doesn't explain this date."_

_Kid grinned broadly._

"_As you've said, you're hot: I wouldn't mind getting in your pants."_

_The dark haired man exaggerated a thoughtful expression._

"_Maybe if you behave…"_

_Kid burst out laughing and Law soon joined him, attracting the attention of most of the other patrons._

* * *

The silence was a pleasant change, even if the reason he was there in the first place was to experience what had preceded it.

Kid looked down at his hands, completely soaked in the red fluid that had left in abundance the body atop the table until mere moments ago, and smiled. The peaceful and happy feeling that flowed through his body then was something that could be rivaled by precious few moments in his life and, just like all the others, was something necessary for the redhead to be able to function normally.

As he always did, Kid stood there, looking at his hands and the scene he could see behind them, absorbing in every single detail to be able to revive it as clearly as possible for the longest time.

Two to three months.

That was the time he had before the memory began to lose its intensity and fragments of it began to slowly disappear. The moment would always be saved in his memory, but the smells, the words, the colors and even the voices would be the first ones to leave, followed a short time after by the details of the images, until this long night would turn into something that could be relived in a matter of mere minutes.

And then Eustass Kid would need to create another memory with which he could pass the following months.

* * *

_Law wasn't surprised to see Kid sitting in the waiting room in front of his office at the hospital. It had become something of a tradition in these past months: every Friday afternoon, and some other random day of the week, Kid would come to pick Law up from work, they would go to some restaurant and perhaps a movie and then to Kid's flat, where they spent the whole weekend._

_That day, though, was far later than the usual time the doctor left the hospital, and today he didn't come out of his office, but from a door farther down the hallway._

_Kid stood up and approached Law._

"_I'm sorry, Mr. Eustass, have you been waiting for a long time?" Law apologized._

_Kid ignored that question, taking a good look at Law's appearance: the shadows under his eyes were more pronounced than usual, and the man looked like he would pass out at any moment._

"_Is everything fine?"_

_Law shook his head._

"_I'll tell you later, alright? I'm starving."_

_That statement worried Kid even more._

_Throughout the months they had been dating, Kid noticed that Trafalgar Law ate far less than somebody with his height and constitution should eat, and the simple fact that he was hungry made Kid wonder how long had it been since the man last ate. Or how long had Law been subsisting on junk food, which didn't make much of a difference._

_Putting an arm around Law's shoulders, Kid held him while they walked to the car, and once there decided to drive straight home. The fact that Law hadn't insisted he could manage on his own proved he wasn't just 'bad', and Kid knew him well enough to expect Law would refuse to tell him the problem until they were home._

_Fifteen minutes later Kid had left the car in his building's parking lot and they took the lift up to the third floor. Upon opening the door, Kid sent Law to sit on one of the kitchen's chairs and he started to prepare something for dinner._

_Kid was going to ask again but Law spoke before he could._

"_I got a complaint for malpractice."_

_Kid dropped the noodle package on the counter. Luckily it was closed._

_He turned around to look at Law: the man had his arms crossed over the table, and his head, eyes half-lidded, lying on them. Kid decided to keep silent and, just as he expected, after a while Law started to talk again._

"_It's stupid. That guy had no chance of surviving the surgery and suffered a really rare sickness. I simply took the chance to take some notes about it before it stopped progressing. And now I'm being accused of letting a patient die."_

_Kid couldn't stop a guffaw when he heard that._

"_So you decided not to operate him so you could see how the sickness worked before he kicked the bucket."_

_Law glared at him._

"_That's a very vulgar way to put it."_

"_And why were you operating on him if he couldn't be saved?"_

"_Had it gone well, something that didn't have many chances to begin with, the guy would have got around one more year to live. It's an extremely expensive operation that's almost never done, but he had enough money and decided to try it, I guess to be able to spend more time with his loved ones. I'm not a monster, Mr. Eustass; I evaluated him before deciding to do anything: it would not have worked."_

"_I'm not arguing with you about that." Kid hurried to clarify, seeing as Law was getting more defensive with every word. He put his attention back to cooking and continued: "I guess the boss was chewing you out or something before."_

_Law snorted and shifted, looking for a more comfortable position, before responding._

"_Something like that. I've been stuck in there, answering the same stupid questions again and again, since noon. And my coworkers, ever since they heard about the complaint yesterday, have been pestering me with even more questions. I haven't had time for a decent meal in two days. I don't even know why's all the fuss, when everybody knows that the most they'll do is suspend me without salary for a couple of months, and that's not very likely. I'm not the first doctor who decides not to operate a patient because it'd be useless."_

"_You're not the first one who decides to take the chance to open them up to watch, either?" Kid asked, turning just in time to see Law smirking in that twisted way of his._

"_It's not my fault if they're such moralists."_

_Laughing, Kid took the plate and put in before Law._

"_Eat. I'll make you an omelette too."_

* * *

Kid turned, startled, when he heard a low creaking, and saw the door that went to the outer room open. Standing against the doorframe was Trafalgar Law, his gray eyes going from Kid's figure to the mutilated corpse on the table behind him.

The silence stretched, being the fast beating of his heart the only thing Kid could hear while Law seemed to analyze the scene presented before his eyes.

Kid clenched his fists and forced himself to stay calm. He had just finished the ritual to keep his equilibrium, all his rage was under control, and he wasn't going to let it out, under any circumstance, on Law.

_Never again, even if I have to destroy this fucking city. _Kid reminded himself, repeating those words over and over in his mind.

The chance of Law discovering him had been a fear deep inside him from the very beginning.

At least he had been able to gain three more invaluable years with Law.

* * *

"_Hey, Trafalgar, give me that fucking shirt." Kid growled for the third time in less than a minute._

_Law ignored him and kept holding his boyfriend's shirt against his chest, smirking mockingly at Kid._

"_I think I'll pass, Mr. Eustass, you look remarkably better without it on."_

_Kid grit his teeth._

"_I've got to go to work, dumbass, and that's the only clean shirt left."_

"_It's Saturday, tell them you're not going."_

_Clenching his fists with even more strength, so much his knuckles turned white, Kid forced himself to breathe deeply._

"_I've told you… we've got a fucking last minute job and I have to go. Give. Me. That. Fucking. Shirt."_

_Law's smirk turned playful and he tightened his hold on the shirt._

"_Then come and take it back."_

_A__ccepting the challenge, Kid lunged at Law, one hand straight for the shirt and the other, still in a tight fist, hit Law's right shoulder in the process, making him let go of the fabric, surprised, and back away, failing to dodge the fist that made him fall off the side of the bed and hit the floor._

_Kneeling on the bed, Kid grinned triumphantly holding the shirt in one hand, but his grin disappeared when he realized his boyfriend wasn't getting up._

"_Trafalgar?" He asked, crawling to the side of the bed to see how the other was._

_Law was lying on his back on the floor, a hand against his cheek where he had hit the corner of the nightstand, his other arm, the one Kid had hit, limp on the floor and twisted in a strange angle, and his legs were tangled in the bed sheets that had previously covered him at the bed._

"_Oh, fuck!" Kid blurted, letting go of the shirt and getting off the bed to kneel next to Law. "You ok?! Fuck, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He began to apologize, trying to help Law to stand up._

_Law shoved his hands off and stood on his own. Ignoring the redhead, he went around the room picking his clothes up and dressing as best as he could with only his left hand._

"_Law, really, I'm sorry, I don't know what the fuck's happened." Kid continued to apologize, standing up as well and trying to approach him._

_Law held up his good hand, making him stop, and spoke, completely dressed by now._

"_Forget it, you have to go to work. I'm leaving too. Don't call me."_

_Kid was paralyzed by those words, and didn't react at all until he heard the main door close._

_Roaring in rage, Kid kicked the nightstand, overturning it and breaking the wood. That was the nightstand against which Law had hit his face._

* * *

"So this is what you've been doing to control yourself." Law said at last, his voice devoid of any emotion.

Kid looked away, feeling unable to look Law in the eyes when the shock wore off and those grey orbs he loved so much were filled with revulsion and horror for what Kid had been doing. For what Kid _was._

* * *

_After two weeks of unanswered phone calls and messages and five days of being camped outside of Law's apartment door, almost without eating or sleeping, Kid jumped when he heard the door being opened. Law hadn't got out at all during those five days._

"_You still here?" The dark haired man asked, looking at him seriously._

_Kid didn't answer, choking in his words at seeing Law for the first time after those almost three weeks. His cheek showed still a bit of bruising from the hit against the nightstand._

_His right arm was in a sling._

"_The cat ate your tongue?" Law asked. "If you have something to say, I'd recommend you to do it now or leave. This has gone too far already."_

_Kid hurried to his feet, almost falling over in the process. He forced himself to look Law in the eyes, trying to convey his sincerity. The hundreds of speeches he'd been preparing those days disappeared and he was forced to improvise, stumbling over the words in his hurry to get them out._

"_Law, I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, I don't know what the fuck happened, but I feel really sorry about it. I know I shouldn't come here, that you have all the reasons in the world to throw me out and that I'm a fucking imbecile, but you're too important to me. I… I love you." Kid confessed for the first time. "You're the only good thing I've had in all my fucking life, so please, please, give another chance. Just one, if I do anything to make you angry, or I hurt you again or anything, then send me to hell, dissect me to see what de fuck is wrong in my head or whatever you want, but, please, give one more chance. It won't happen again, I swear, I'll find some way to control it."_

_Kid finished, taking in the air he hadn't bothered to stop to breathe while giving his improvised speech, and waited._

_Law was silent for long moments, looking Kid over, evaluating him and, with some luck, considering his words._

_Finally, the man sighed and gestured to the improvised campsite._

"_Pick that up and get inside, it wouldn't look well in my curriculum to have someone die of starvation at my doorstep."_

_Feeling immensely relieved, Kid hurried to comply._

"_But," Law spoke again, stopping the redhead before he could enter, "you're on probation, and I have absolutely no intention of making it easy for you. You can forget about having me in your bed or getting in mine for quite some time."_

"_I won't do anything you don't want me to." Kid promised, too relieved to be bothered about the prospect of no sex for some time._

_Kid was tempted to embrace Law, but a glare stopped him and the redhead limited himself to enter en sit on the chair his luckily-still-boyfriend pointed him to._

_He still didn't know how, but he'd find a way to release all the rage that consumed him in a way that it wouldn't reach Law ever again._

_No matter what happened, he wouldn't hurt Law again._

_Never._

* * *

"Yes, this is how I've been controlling myself." Kid admitted, looking down at his hands still soaked in the fresh blood of his latest victim.

Silence fell again between them. Kid waited to hear Law's footsteps walking away, but the man didn't move. He simply asked another question.

"You already did this before meeting me?"

Kid lifted his head at that. When he saw Law's emotionless gaze, he looked away again, to an undefined point of the far wall.

"No, not this. Back then I used to get into fights, a lot of them. Though I did kill some people." Kid didn't understand why Law was still there, but while it was possible, he would try to explain himself a bit.

He needed to try and explain himself, even if Law wasn't going to understand him.

He doubted anybody could.

"The girl from the video's boyfriend." Law deduced, refering back to that conversation they had on their first date almost four years ago.

"Among others." Kid said.

"Why did you change?" Law asked next.

_Perhaps he needs answers._ Kid reasoned with himself. If Law needed answers, Kid would provide them. After all, everything was over now: once Law left the place it would be a matter of time before the cops got here and arrested Kid, the only way to avoid it being to prevent Law from leaving.

That was something Kid would never do.

Never.

He had promised himself and Law that he wouldn't hurt him again, and he was going to keep that promise. He hadn't lied back then: Trafalgar Law was the only good thing that had ever happened in Eustass Kid's miserable life, and he would do anything in his power to protect him. And if to do that he had to accept to be sentenced… to whatever they wanted to sentence him for the long list of murders at his back, then so be it.

"The fights supposed too much of a risk. You saw it yourself, I even got shot once. I could have died, and I didn't want for that to happen. Before I didn't care, but now I do." He confessed, feeling stupid about his words.

There he was, a monster that needed to cause pain and kill in order to have a semblance of a normal life the rest of the time, talking about how having _fallen in love_ has changed his twisted life.

It was absurd.

And why wasn't Law leaving?

"How did you discover me?" Kid decided to ask. That was something he needed to know: he'd been extremely careful to not leave any traces, so, how had Law found him out?

He'd even disguised these nights as some of those he had to spend at the workshop until very late, sometimes long past midnight, to do some last minute and urgent job. There were a couple of those each month, and thus hiding a false one for seven or eight real hadn't seemed too hard.

Something resembling a snort was Law's first answer.

"I remind you I'm a doctor, Kid."

The redhead looked back at Law, his eyes open round. _Kid._ Law only used his name in very few extremely serious or special moments.

"Even if you showered, I could detect the smell of blood."

"You knew…?"

Kid was incapable of thinking clearly. He didn't understand anything. Law had known? Since when? And if he had really followed Kid knowing _that_, he must have suspected something at least since last time. That had been four months ago.

"I put all the pieces together a few months ago. Once I realized every three or four months, after "working" for a night you were in a very good mood despite having been practically insufferable the previous days, I started to ponder it. At first I thought you were getting into fights, but discarded that idea when I checked you never seemed hurt after those nights. Besides, if it had been fight you were getting into, you wouldn't have hide them from me. From there it was really easy. If you were hurting people any other way, you couldn't risk to be identified, so you couldn't be leaving them live. I confirmed it last time. I don't know what you did, but you should be more careful: grey matter is something really easy to identify for a doctor."

When Law finished, they stayed both silent, Law's gaze fixed on Kid's face, still completely devoid of any emotion, and Kid looked at Law, trying to process what he'd just been told.

"Then what the fuck are you doing here?" Kid asked at last. "I hadn't noticed you were here, you could have confirmed it and leave before I saw you and decided to kill you."

Law's lips moved to form that twisted smirk of his. Kid felt as if a fist was clenching his chest. He loved that smirk.

"Will you do it?"

He had not doubt.

"No."

Without losing his smirk, Law took a step forward. And then another.

"What you are thinking, Kid, has a little problem."

Another step and Law was less than two feet away from Kid. Right in his hands' reach.

Kid swallowed, refusing to believe what his eyes were seeing.

"You're not the only one here who seems to be wrong in the head."

Kid stepped back, hitting his hips on the table.

"Stop joking around."

"I could have left when you found that girl's doll and, instead of giving it back, ripped it right before her eyes and burst out laughing when she started to cry; or I could have left when you threw that box full of kittens into the river; I could have left, too, after you decided to have me chained to the bed for a whole weekend; or when you broke the nose of that guy who laughed at us at the cinema. But I stayed, I stayed because even though I have no doubt that you are a threat to the world, I also have no doubt that you are no threat to me. I stayed because I fell in love with a fucking psychopath who brings me breakfast to bed and likes to cuddle after making love to me."

Law lifted a hand and caressed Kid's cheek with the tips of his fingers.

"You're not leaving…" Kid whispered, trying to convince himself.

"No."

Kid circled Law's waist, hugging him with all his strength and ignoring the fact he'd just stained Law's clothes with blood. He shortened the distance that separated their faces to kiss him desperately, pouring into that act all the tension and all the fear he'd felt during these last minutes.

Law was there, he was real. He wasn't going anywhere, he was going to stay with Kid. He was going to keep being his.

Kid could stop hiding.

Kid drew back and put his forehead against his companions'.

"There's something I've wanted to do for some time now. If you feel you can't do it and want to stop, just say it. I will stop and you can leave if you think this is too much after all."

"Go ahead. I have no intention to leave." Law accepted, his voice challenging.

Kid lowered his arms from around the man's waist.

"Get naked."

Even though Law hated being ordered, he didn't complain and did as he was told. That was something important to Kid, something he needed to do to know everything would be fine, and both of them knew it.

Once Law was naked, Kid motioned for him to approach, and Law did just that, stopping when his bare skin was almost touching Kid's dressed body. The redhead surrounded his waist again, pulled him flush against his body and lowered a hand lo Law's ass, stroking it before, without any warning, pushing two blood soaked fingers inside his lover's tight entrance.

Law gasped, and his hands grabbed onto Kid's shirt.

Lowering his head and holding Law's jaw with his other hand, Kid lifted the man's head so he was looking straight into his eyes and began to move his fingers, looking for the bundle of nerves that could make Law moan in that way Kid loved so much. Once he found it, he started hitting it repeatedly, enjoying the sounds Law wasn't trying to hide, and he didn't stop until he could feel Law's member completely hard against his leg.

Then he withdrew the fingers and stepped back to open his own pants, not taking his eyes away from his lover and his obvious erection at any moment, who was looking intently at him at the same time.

"If you want to stop, say it now." Kid warned.

Law simply shook his head.

Kid lifted Law off the ground and spun around to sit in a free space on the same table where the dead body of that man still ther lay. He stood between Law's open legs and lifted them to get into a good position. Law wound his arms around Kid's neck and then Kid thrust forward, entering him and hugging him tightly once he was inside.

Without any words, his face buried in Law's hair and Law's head resting against his neck, hugging one another, Kid started to move, both moaning without restraints.

He was there, in his sanctuary, holding the person he loved the most in his arms, moving inside him, in that way he loved so much, and Law was corresponding him, trying to move his hips despite the awkward position, covering Kid's neck in kisses, moaning his pleasure in a way Kid had never thought he could have him. With the realization that he had just obtained everything he never thought possible, Kid reached his climax, coming inside his lover's bloodied passage and taking his hand to Law's erection to drag him as well to his orgasm, that covered both Law's stomach and Kid's shirt in his essence.

They stayed there, hugging and joined, Law half sitting on the table and Kid using him and the piece of furniture as support to not fall out of sheer weariness after such an intense night as he had had.

"Mr. Eustass," Law spoke, and Kid grinned at having gone back to their usual treatment. "Tell me you checked this guy didn't have AIDS or anything like that, because if thanks to you I've caught something then you will be the next one to die here, you hear me?

Kid laughed, incredibly happy to see Law was still the same as ever despite everything.

_His_ Law.

"Who do you think I am? I do my homework before choosing someone, or I'd come down with something by now.

"Really?" Law asked, his voice not very convinced but his face still nestled against Kid's neck.

"Really. I spend weeks studying them: I look for people who goes to one of those free clinics to get a check and make sure their results are negative, and then monitor them to ensure they don't have any family or close friends who would miss them."

"You've thought of everything."

"Of course." Said Kid, holding him tighter. "I don't want to get caught."

"How do you get rid of the bodies?"

"Dissolving them." Kid answered with a huge grin. "When they closed this place there were all these nice canisters full of industrial solvent. When I bring a new guy, there aren't even the bones of the previous one left.

"Is this building yours?"

"Yes. It was my father's factory, but once it closed the building was left as a sort of warehouse."

Law moved, and Kid felt how he turned his head to look at the center of the table."

"Are you done with your friend?"

Kid muttered an affirmation.

"Could you lend him to me before you put him in one of those canisters?"

Kid laughed, astonished.

"Don't tell me you want to open him."

"Well, you're not going to use him anymore, and are going to get rid of him either way, so…"

Still chuckling, Kid ruffled Law's hair.

"All yours, but get dressed first."

**The end**

* * *

If you got here, I'd appreciate any comments :D


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